IAU-URSI HISTORICAL RADIO ASTRONOMY WORKING GROUP

History Talks

In recent years records of many meetings have moved away from print proceedings to Web collections of presentations, but meeting Web pages are not always permanently maintained. The intent of the History Talks page of the Working Group is to provide an ongoing record in pdf format of talks on radio astronomy history. If you have radio astronomy history talks to contribute, please contact Ellen Bouton, NRAO Archivist.

For history talks presented at WG sessions at IAU and URSI General Assemblies, see the WG Meeting Reports page.

Entire meeting proceedings (in date order):

• Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy (pdf, 47 MB). Proceedings of a workshop held at National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 4-6 May 1983, honoring the 50^th anniversary of Karl Jansky's discovery of cosmic radio waves.
• Video presentations at Symposium: Discoveries in Astronomy: a symposium at the American Philosophical Society in November 2009, organized by Kenneth I. Kellermann and Ronald D. Ekers. Selected presentations in pdf format:
  • Introduction: Discoveries in Astronomy - Ronald D. Ekers and Kenneth I. Kellermann.
  • Galileo's Astonishing Discoveries - Owen Gingerich
  • The Discovery of Pulsars and the Aftermath - Malcolm Longair
  • The Discovery of Quasars - Maarten Schmidt
• A Workshop on the History of Canadian Radio Astronomy, 25-26 July 2016, Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, Penticton, BC, Canada. Videos of talks and conference photos. Also linked from the same Web page: video from the 1987 NRC workshop entitled "Radio Astronomy and Canada: Fifty Years of Progress."
• Honoring the 60th anniversary of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory and the John A. Galt 26-m Telescope on 20 June 2020, Tim Robishaw has gathered a YouTube playlist of historical DRAO footage including celebrations for the 25th and 40th birthdays. Note also the overview of the official opening of DRAO from the Journal of the RASC.
• Green Bank Observatory 65th Anniversary Colloquium Series, September-October 2022.
  • Steve Croft, Six Decades of Technosignature Science at Green Bank.
  • Phil Jewell, Millimeter-Wave Astronomy - The Green Bank Connection.
  • Jean-Luc Margot and Patrick Taylor, Planetary Radar Astronomy and Green Bank's Impact.
  • Karen Masters, Galaxies at 21cm from the Green Bank Observatory.
  • Brett McGuire, Molecular Discovery at Green Bank: Past, Present, and Future.
  • Maura McLaughlin, Giant Pulses to Nanohertz Gravitational Waves: the Past, Present, and Future of Pulsar Research at the Green Bank Observatory.
• IEEE History of Electrotechnology Conference (HISTELCON), Florence, Italy, September 2023. Session S8A2Aa - High tech developments in the history of radio astronomy. Audio for the full session is here, and video (including audio) is here; these are large files and we recommend downloading rather than trying to listen/view online. Time markings for the audio and video are listed with the individual talks.
  • Ronald D. Ekers and Clair Hooker, The Parkes Radio Telescope: how technological developments have driven discoveries in Radio Astronomy, 00:00:00 - 00:26:03. NB: The recording was slightly late in starting, so the initial slide and first few seconds of audio are missing.
  • Yashwant Gupta, Technological Innovations and Historical Impact of the GMRT: an IEEE Milestone Facility, 00:26:05 - 00:46:43
  • Rustam Dagkesamanskii, Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory: shortly about history and instrumentation development, 00:46:44 - 01:09:35
  • Leonid Gurvits, A Brief History of Space VLBI, 01:10:10 - 01:33:54
  • Germano Bianchi, Federico Perini and Giancarlo Setti, A brief history of the Northern Cross Radio Telescope, 01:34:27 - 01:56:47
  • Christopher Salter, The Arecibo 305-m Telescope: 57 Years of Unprecedented Discovery, 01:56:59 - 02:20:42
  • Ralph Spencer, The Role of Technology in the Development of Very Long Baseline Astronomy 02:20:49 - 02:45:00
• Book launch and Bracewell Sundial 10th anniversary: In Socorro NM on 27 September, an afternoon workshop celebrated the launch of Joe Pawsey and the Founding of Australian Radio Astronomy - Early Discoveries, from the Sun to the Cosmos, by W.M. Goss, C. Hooker, and R.D. Ekers (Springer open access), and on 28 September attendees celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Bracewell Sundial at the VLA.
  • A selection of photos from the Pawsey book launch.
  • The full workshop video on Vimeo.
  • A selection of photos from the Bracewell Sundial 10th anniversary celebration.

Individual history talks (alphabetical by presenter):

• John Bolton, Radio Astronomy: Steppingstones to Quasars, handwritten text of Bolton's 1966 Jansky Lecture; this was the inaugural lecture in the annual NRAO/AUI Jansky Lecture series.
• Ellen Bouton, The Peripatetic Mr. Reber, History of Canadian Radio Astronomy, Penticton, Canada, July 2016.
• Ron Ekers and Richard Schilizzi, Lessons from the SKA, IAU WG Future Large-Scale Facilities, 27 August 2012.
• Ron Ekers, The History of the Development of Aperture Synthesis in Radio Astronomy, Socorro, NM, 1 September 2017. [mp4 file, 355 MB]
• Ron Ekers and John O'Sullivan, The Development of Focal Plane Arrays in Radio Astronomy PAFAR 2022, Sydney, Australia, November 2022.
• Dave Finley, The Very Large Array - Past and Future, 2022 version of talk on radio astronomy and the VLA.
• Lev Gindilis and Leonid Gurvits, Half a Century of SETI in the USSR and Russia, 40th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, Moscow, Russia, August 2014.
• Mark Gordon, The Evolution of Millimeter-Wave Astronomy at NRAO, USNC-URSI-J annual meeting, Boulder, CO, January 2012.
• Miller Goss, Ruby Payne-Scott, Augusta University, 8 February 2019
• Miller Goss, J.L.Pawsey: Pioneer Radio Astronomer, Socorro, NM, 16 March 2022.
• Miller Goss, J.L. Pawsey: His 1961-1962 Plans for the Future of NRAO and a Proto-VLA - Would He Have Built the VLA? Socorro, NM, 22 February 2023.
• Leonid Gurvits and Yuri Kovalev, Arecibo Observatory: A Long Life with Very Long Baselines, Arecibo 50th Anniversary meeting, 2013.
• Leonid Gurvits, Square Kilometre Array Behind the Iron Curtain, SKA History Meeting, Jodrell Bank, UK, April 2019.
• Bob Hayward, The First Radio Astronomy Interferometer, Socorro, NM, March 2013.
• Bob Hayward, Bell Labs and Its Radio Astronomy Legacy, Socorro, NM, November 2013.
• Bob Hayward, Stirling Colgate and the Multifunction Array Radar, Socorro, NM, 2014.
• Bob Hayward, A Short History of the MAR-I, IEEE-Albuquerque meeting, Socorro, NM, May 2019.
• Ken Kellermann, The Beginnings of NRAO and the Transition of Radio Astronomy to Big Science, Socorro, NM, September 2009.
• Ken Kellermann, The Largest Feasible Steerable Telescope, IAU GA Vienna, August 2018.
• Ken Kellermann, Radio Source Counts and the Steady State Universe Revisited, Jas@75, Vancouver, Canada, December 2018.
• Ken Kellermann, Discovery Space: An Underrated Key Science Project, SKA History, Manchester, England, April 2019.
• Ken Kellermann, SKA Ideas, Motivation and Funding in the United States, SKA History, Manchester, England, April 2019.
• Ken Kellermann, Historical Research and the Freedom of Information Act, AAS 235, January 2020.
• Ken Kellermann, Nikolai Kardashev and the Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations, Kardashev@90, Moscow, Russia, April 2022.
• Ken Kellermann, Leonid Gurvits, VLBI and Cosmological Parameters, ng Space VLBI, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands, October 2022.
• Ken Kellermann, Karl Jansky and the Beginning of Radio Astronomy, Charlottesville, VA, 27 April 2023.
• Ken Kellermann, Discovering the Radio Universe, 2024 Jansky Lecture, 24 October 2024.
• Tony Kerr et al., The Genesis of SIS Mixers - The Legacy of John Tucker in Radio Astronomy, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, Phoenix, AZ, 2015
• Wayne Orchiston et al., Alan Maxwell and the Monitoring of 100 MHz Solar Emission in 1947-1948: Towards the World's First Known MSc Thesis on Radio Astronomy, poster at the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand annual meeting, May 2024.
• Wayne Orchiston et al., The World's First Female Radio Astronomer: Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, and the Mysterious 'Norfolk Island Effect', poster at the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand annual meeting, May 2024.
• Yuri Parijskij, Radio Astronomy in the Next 70 Years, JENAM-2003, August 2003, Budapest, Hungary.
• Adele Plunkett, The Story of the Story: The ALMA Telescope, Charlottesville, VA, 22 August 2023.
• Tony Remijan, Radio Astronomy and Spectroscopy: Bell Labs to ALMA AAS, June 2022.
• Tim Robishaw, Gladys A. Harvey: Canada's First Woman Radio Astronomer / la premiére Canadienne radioastronome, NRC Symposium: Celebrating the Success of Women in STEM, Virtual Symposium, 11 February 2021.
• Tim Robishaw, The Foundations of Canadian Radio Astronomy, Foundations of Canadian Radio Astronomy, University of Calgary Physics and Astronomy Colloquium, Calgary, AB, 14 October 2021.
• Tim Robishaw, A History of Radio Astronomy in Canada, Leading to the Measurement of the Zeeman Effect in Interstellar Matter, NRC Security and Disruptive Technologies Research Centre Seminar, Ottawa, ON, 1 December 2023.
• Richard Schilizzi, The origins of the EVN (and its subsequent development), Symposium on Masers and Molecules in honour of Roy Booth's 65th Birthday, September 2003.
• Richard Schilizzi, VSOP in the early days, or how the three samurai - Hirax-san, Morimoto-san and Oda-san - conquered the space VLBI world, Symposium in honour of Hisashi Hirabayashi's retirement, 5 December 2007.
• Richard Schilizzi, A short history of space VLBI, Symposium on Resolving The Sky for Richard Schilizzi's retirement, 18 April 2012.
• Richard Schilizzi, A Short History of Space VLBI, Kardashev's 80th Birthday Symposium, 20 June 2012.
• Richard Schilizzi, Space VLBI, van Ardenne Retirement Symposium, 29 May 2013.
• Richard Schilizzi, What's in a name - the early days of JIVE, JIV-ERIC Symposium, 20 April 2015.
• Richard Schilizzi et al., The SKA Story: Prequel, Episodes 1 and 2, Symposium on Innovation and Discovery in Radio Astronomy for Ron Ekers' 75th Birthday, 16 September 2016.
• Richard Schilizzi, From the European VLBI Network to the SKA, Harry van de Laan 80th Birthday Symposium, 8 October 2016.
• Richard Schilizzi, Wim Brouw and the SKA, Symposium in honour of Wim Brouw's 77th Birthday (WimSym77), 7 July 2017.
• Richard Schilizzi, The SKA Story: Parts 1 and 2, Meeting on The History of the SKA: 1980s to 2012, 3 April 2019.
• Richard Schilizzi, RadioNet 2000-2020: a cohering force in European Radio Astronomy, Final RadioNet Board meeting, 26 November 2020.
• Richard Schilizzi, Space VLBI History, JIVE, and Leonid, ngSVLBI-3, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands, October 2022.
• Richard Schilizzi, EVN Seminar: The EVN, JIVE and SKA Through the Decades, 24 October 2024. pdf of PowerPoint slides; MKV file (153 MB); MP4 file (918 MB).
• Ralph Spencer, A Century of Cosmic Rays and Manchester's Role in Their Study, Schuster Colloquium, 5 October 2021.
• Ralph Spencer, Professor Roger Clifton Jennison, 1922-2006, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, June 2022.
• Ralph Spencer, The Jodrell Bank Story, Sandbach Lodge of Installed Masters No. 9433, 19 January 2023.
• Joni Tammi, Antennas towards space - the first fifty years of Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, 8 October 2024. (in Finnish)
• Glenn Vallender et al., Ashburton and the 'Canterbury Project': New Zealand Radio-Meteorological Research Following WWII, poster at the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand annual meeting, May 2024.
• Esko Valtaoja, How to make friends, success and influence in the world of science? Metsähovi 1980-2000, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, 8 October 2024. (in Finnish)
• Paul Vanden Bout, Trudging Off to Chajnantor, Science with ALMA, Madrid, November 2006.
• Paul Vanden Bout, Space Molecules to Solar Systems: Five Decades of Discoveries (Millimeter Astronomy at NRAO - Some Personal Reminiscences), 2023 Jansky Lecture, 8 November 2023.
• Sandy Weinreb, Radio Astronomy from Jansky to the Future - an Engineer's Point of View, 2011 Jansky Lecture.
• Robert Wilson, Cosmic Microwave Background Discovery and Its Role in Cosmology, talk at ATT sponsored by the AT&T Women in Technology, Middletown, NJ, 2016 (preceded in the video by an 8 minute video AT&T Media Productions about the CMB discovery).
• Robert Wilson, Pivotal Discoveries in Radio Astronomy at Bell Labs, CASPER Workshop and BH PIRE DSP School 2019.

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